Few marketing ideas have had the staying power of positioning. Since Al Ries helped define the concept more than five decades ago, companies have used it to determine where they stand in the minds of customers and how they can claim a category of their own.

Simon Zhang has spent nearly two decades extending that thinking in China. After joining RIES in 2007, he built the firm’s Shanghai practice and developed category strategy, a framework focused on helping companies define and lead emerging markets. His work has included brands across consumer goods, automotive, retail, and technology, while the firm’s recent assignments have expanded into areas such as AI vehicles, robotics, and intelligent manufacturing.

In this conversation with The Consulting Report, Zhang, CEO of RIES in Shanghai, discusses why he believes strategic consulting must preserve its independence, how internal debate shapes the firm’s culture, and which capabilities will matter most as AI challenges the traditional advantages of consthe mind is the ultimate battlefield of business competition consulting firms.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

“The mind is the ultimate battlefield of business competition.”

The Consulting Report: Can you describe Ries’ core areas of expertise and the principles that guide its consulting work?

Simon Zhang: In 1963, Mr. Al Ries, widely known as the father of positioning, founded Ries & Ries in New York. The firm entered China in 2007, guided by the principle that "the mind is the ultimate battlefield of business competition." Positioning has become one of the most influential classic concept in U.S. marketing history, reshaping the global business competition landscape and helping well-known domestic and international brands such as NVIDIA, Apple, Southwest Airlines, Papa John's, Samsung, Moutai, Great Wall, XPeng, Sam's Club, Junlebao, Deppon, Jack, Weilong, Wanglaoji, among others, to grow steadily, expand, and break through.

Ries operates according to three core principles. First, focus solely on "brain hospitals," providing consulting services only to the highest decision-making level of enterprises, and concentrating on resolving key strategic issues. Second, always maintain neutrality, offering external perspectives and objective advice to clients rather than catering to their preferences. Third, the sole criterion for measuring results is the client's success value.

“Consulting firms must adhere to professionalism as their foundation.”

The Consulting Report: What distinguishes Ries from other strategic consulting firms?

Simon Zhang: Today, more than 99% of consulting firms offer health supplements or emotional value, substituting services for professionalism and deviating from the essence of consulting. The decline of traditional strategic consulting firms and traditional positioning consulting firms is an inevitable trend.

Like professional service institutions such as hospitals and law firms, consulting firms must adhere to professionalism as their foundation, which is the long-standing value anchor that Ries has adhered to. Ries does not seek to become the largest enterprise but only hopes to be among the 1% of consulting firms that uphold the essence of consulting. Ries' goal is to become a "creator of new value" and shoulder the industry mission of "reshaping the value and perception of strategic positioning consulting and even strategic consulting."

The Consulting Report: What principles define Ries' culture?

Simon Zhang: Ries’ culture is grounded in four principles: integrity; openness and diversity; full internal debate with high external consistency; and simplicity.

Peter Drucker said that the future of an enterprise depends on whether it can continuously produce upright management. As a strategic consulting firm, being upright without being reckless and being upright while full of kindness are key to maintaining the team’s cohesion and combat effectiveness. In a highly learning-oriented field, openness enables us to keep pace with the times, while diversity creates productive collisions of ideas. We fully engage in internal debate while maintaining high external consistency. Internal vitality and external discipline are the best practices for maintaining internal competitiveness and external trust. Finally, complex interpersonal relationships are the natural enemies of a team’s combat effectiveness.

The Consulting Report: How is AI changing strategic consulting and the types of companies Ries serves?

Simon Zhang: AI is redefining the core capabilities of strategic consulting—traditional competitive advantages such as case accumulation, data resources, and analytical capabilities are facing challenges, while the ability to define problems, the ability to identify trends, and the ability to make decisions under conditions of insufficient information will become the key barriers for strategic consulting firms in the future.

In the era of AI, Ries actively embraces the future, continuously evolves through self-innovation, and proposes a brand-new methodology for super technology enterprise brands. In the past, Ries established a leading edge in strategic consulting for AI technology enterprises, with its service scope covering cutting-edge emerging fields such as AI cars, AI flying cars, AI sewing machines, sewing robots, and humanoid robots.

The Consulting Report: Have there been any books, mentors, or maxims that have influenced the way you lead your organization?

Simon Zhang: Mr. Al Ries, the father of positioning, is the greatest strategist in history. It was he who introduced me to the cognitive world of business, and under his trust, I was appointed CEO of Ries Global. This year marks his centenary, and I will always cherish his memory.